Why is 'Blonde' – Netflix's Marilyn Monroe biopic – rated NC-17 instead of TV-MA?

Even though the ‘X’ rating could simply acknowledge excessive violence or drug use, it came to be largely associated with pornographic films. Wikimedia Commons^[16]

However, Valenti’s failure to copyright the X made it possible for any film to carry the adults-only rating without its distributor having to officially pay the Classification and Rating Administration for certification. This allowed filmmakers to slap it on pornographic films like “Deep Throat^[17]” to attract viewers and to gain access to the legitimate marketplace.

While the X rating could be also assigned for representations of nudity, violence, language, drug use or overall “tone,” this association with hardcore sexual content stigmatized the category’s use by serious filmmakers for years.

Valenti hoped renaming the X rating as NC-17 would spur the adults-only rating’s use by the film industry. For the most part, it didn’t, with a few notable exceptions like “Showgirls^[18]” (1995), “Bad Education^[19]” (2004) and “Shame^[20]” (2011).

Instead, practically all distributors whose films were initially awarded an NC-17 by the Classification and Rating Administration chose one of three options: to re-edit their films down to an R rating, to release an R-rated and unrated version for home video or DVD, or simply to surrender the rating altogether and release the film theatrically without one.

It was commonly believed that an unrated film would encounter fewer barriers^[21] to exhibition in the U.S. marketplace than an NC-17 one.

An eye toward awards season

Netflix, though, is not a movie theater. It is a streaming service that requires no admittance in the traditional sense, has no employees patrolling its screenings for underage viewers, and shifts the responsibility of denying access to its content to subscribers themselves. Netflix offers parental controls^[22] so users can restrict access to certain content for each profile in their accounts.

Significantly, many Netflix films with mature content carry a “TV-MA” rating. The TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board^[23] developed the designation, meaning “For mature audiences. May not be suitable for ages 17 and under.” It’s recognizable to viewers of television series like AMC’s “Better Call Saul^[24],” FX’s “American Horror Story^[25]” or even Netflix’s “Ozark^[26].”

So why wouldn’t Netflix apply a maturity rating from television to “Blonde”?

The answer is simple: Netflix likely sees the film as an Oscar contender.

Per the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ rules^[27], to qualify for the Academy Awards, “Blonde” must have a theatrical run, even if that run is extremely short. In 2019^[28], Netflix joined the Motion Picture Association – the first and only streaming service to do so. So if it decides to release its films theatrically, Netflix must do so with a rating, just like the legacy member companies: Disney, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros.

With its TV-MA-rated “Ibiza: Love Drunk^[29],” “Cuties^[30]” and “365 Days^[31],” Netflix never carried a Motion Picture Association rating because these films bypassed theatrical exhibition altogether in the United States.

Making the media rounds

Netflix undoubtedly is also using the NC-17 for “Blonde” as a marketing ploy – what film scholar Justin Wyatt has called “marketing controversy^[32],” a technique used in the past to sell films that received an X or NC-17.

Netflix has remained mum on the subject. Instead, “Blonde” director Andrew Dominik and star de Armas have dropped hints to the media about the film’s provocative and sensationalist aspects, while, at the same time, expressing incredulity at the film’s NC-17 rating.

‘Blonde’ director Andrew Dominik. Danny Martindale/FilmMagic via Getty Images^[33]

“I was surprised,” Dominik told Vulture^[34]. “I thought we’d colored inside the lines.” De Armas said largely the same in an interview for French fashion magazine L’Officiel^[35]. “I didn’t understand why [the rating] happened.”

Nearly in the same proverbial breath, both director and star have also teased the salaciousness of the subject matter.

“It’s an NC-17 movie about Marilyn Monroe, it’s kind of what you want, right?” Dominik told Screen Daily^[36]. “I want to go and see the NC-17 version of the Marilyn Monroe story.”

De Armas, meanwhile, supports Dominik’s unfiltered look at Monroe’s life, declaring it^[37] “the most daring, unapologetic, and feminist take on her story that I had ever seen.”

‘A little steam to keep the stream’

I wonder, though: Is “Blonde’s” NC-17 really much of a selling point, given what viewers are regularly exposed to in their living rooms?

In a streaming landscape littered with sexually explicit TV-MA television series like HBO’s “Euphoria^[38]” and “House of the Dragon^[39],” Hulu’s “Minx^[40]” and “Pam & Tommy^[41],” and even Netflix’s own “Sex/Life^[42]” and “How to Build a Sex Room^[43],” it shouldn’t be.

Dominik indirectly, but perhaps correctly, undercut his own film’s luridness, telling Screen Daily^[44], “If I look at an episode of ‘Euphoria,’ it’s far more graphic than anything going on in ‘Blonde.’” De Armas echoed the same talking points later in her L’Officiel interview^[45]: “I can tell you a number of shows or movies that are way more explicit with a lot more sexual content than ‘Blonde.’”

This new wave of sexually frank and progressive series, according to Variety television writer Joe Otterson^[46], may be one strategy that streaming companies are using to keep subscribers enthralled in an increasingly competitive marketplace. “It might take a little steam to keep the stream,” Otterson writes.

“Blonde” – NC-17, TV-MA or unrated – is just another provocative addition to this pot.

The trailer for ‘Blonde.’

Authors: Kevin Sandler, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, Arizona State University

Read more https://theconversation.com/why-is-blonde-netflixs-marilyn-monroe-biopic-rated-nc-17-instead-of-tv-ma-185359

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